


Never Weak

by BurnWithinTheseFlames



Category: Bleach, InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 05:10:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13563531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurnWithinTheseFlames/pseuds/BurnWithinTheseFlames
Summary: As they prepare for the War Against Aizen, Kagome accompanies Orihime to Soul Society. How odd to be back here, after she fled 110 years ago. But there's a reason why she's been avoiding the Gotei 13 for this long...Jushiro Ukitake x Kagome HigurashiCompleted One Shot.





	Never Weak

**Intro: She would never refer to him as weak**

Really it was  _odd_ to be back here.

By all rights she shouldn't be here. She had apparently "turned her back" on Soul Society some hundred odd years ago when she had sought to help Kisuke and Tessai in getting the others out. In helping the former Captains and Lieutenants who had become Visored. Really. What else was she had done. Given the chance they'd have been executed for "experimenting" in hollowification. Made sense. Like they'd had a choice in the matter.

But then war changed things, didn't it?

Shifting her weight slightly, Kagome Higurashi leaned against the knobbly bark of a tree as she considered the pair of young women talking nearby. Just her luck. She had been slated as babysitter for Rukia Kuchiki and the would-be healer, Orihime Inoue. When they got back to the mortal world she was going to throw Urahara into the closest lake. So what if she and Isshin had always been close friends and so she'd become the godmother of his insufferable brats. It didn't mean she  _was_  a babysitter.

Not when the "children" could be difficult.

Oh, Orihime didn't quite mind Kagome's presence. The orange haired girl had come to believe that she was Ichigo's older cousin. She did, after all, look as if she wasn't anymore than twenty five in age. When it had been revealed she too as a Shinigami Inoue had taken it as something of a given. Rukia hadn't been as accepting. She was just waiting for the Kuchiki to make some sort of a comment. As a graduate of the Shinigami Academy, and having served in the Gotei 13, certainly the dark haired female had some idea the gossip.

Or maybe Rukia had been giving her odd looks because there was some truth to the claims she was avoiding the 13th Captain.

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

Having just gotten over a cold that had kept him confined to his bedchambers, Jushiro Ukitake sighed. He had asked for a position at the Academy. It made sense. The less strenuous activity would keep him from feeling the persistent ache in his chest. And keep him from going bored. But these last few days he had been finding himself getting weaker not better.

He was feeling a bit miserable.

"Jushiro," the lightly accented voice tugged at his concentration and he turned.

"Ah, Kagome, how are you?"

The woman approaching him was in a way a sight for sore eyes. The 3rd Division was not, by any means, conventionally located to his own 13th Division. Even if, as both Captains, there was leeway to wander. But the recent bout of Hollows making their presence known meant that she had taken to tagging along with Kensei rather than remain within the Gotei 13.

"I'm fine," eyes narrowed as she considered him, "you on the other hand."

"I'm..." Her lips pursed and he sighed. She would rat him out to Retsu. She'd done it before. "I've been better."

There was a soft laugh. "See that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Rather than respond, Jushiro took a moment to consider the small woman. At some 5'3" in height, just shy of a foot smaller than his own 6'1" height, she had pulled her thick black hair into a hasty ponytail. Pieces had slipped free though and framed her head in a wild mess that only served in amplifying the unique blue of her eyes. And though she too was a captain only he was wearing the white hoari, despite the summer heat. If he wasn't worried about presenting a good image to the students he'd have dressed like her. The simple all black uniform was contrasted only by a strip of light green, the 3rd Division's color, tied around her throat like a choker.

Small but lithe. Slender shouldered and waist with wide hips and an ass meant to be gripped quite comfortably.

Blinking at the thought, more befitting his brunette friend than him even if he had a desire to, Jushiro grinned. "Not going to let me live that down, are you?"

"No."

**END FLASHBACK**

* * *

Shaking her head at the memory, Kagome sighed.

Jushiro Ukitake had been rather boyishly cute. There was a sweetness to his personality that made him easily approachable to both Shinigami and students alike. And the white haired Shinigami was, despite his weakened system, still strong and handsome. The sense of nobleness about the 13th Captain appealed to many females within the Gotei 13. Herself included.

But he had gone over the top with some of the gifts. Lips twitched, and at times, his behavior. There was no denying that. Still for a woman who during her life been treated as little more than a replacement the attention had been nice. She had not resisted the 13th Captain's advances. Which had only fueled the rumors. It wasn't as if dating was forbidden. In fact, to a degree, it was encouraged.

It was just that day in the Academy.

* * *

**Character Change (Jushiro)**

It seemed she was still very consciousness of spiritual energy for she had already turned. Deep blue eyes considered him. She hadn't changed. Dark eyed, darker haired, and a petite thing. For a moment he took to considering the former 3rd Division Captain as she watched the mortal and his own Division member. But then she had changed. She had, after all, left Soul Society just more than a century ago. He would be something of a fool, wouldn't he, to think that things were as they had once been.

Lips parting brown eyes widened as instead of her name he coughed. These attacks of his were coming more and more without warning. And like so many times before pain ripped its way through his lungs, creeping through his chest. Trying to muffle the sound though only made it worst.

"Ju-shu..." There was a scramble as she got to her feet. "Jushiro!"

He struggled to reassure her that this was nothing. He had grown used to the increasing attacks. His body had grown weaker since the upstart Kurosaki had come to Soul Society , and he hadn't gotten the time to relax like he had. But the coughing fit was one of the worst in a while. Something that made the idea of doing more than trying to keep his own feet underneath him daunting in Jushiro's mind. His lungs were on fire and his throat felt as if someone had grabbed hold of him in a choke hold and was slowly tightening.

Then there was nothing. No pain, no burning, no feel of his throat closing in on him.

Just the feel of two hands pressing against his chest and a blanketing warmth that spread outwards from those hands despite the heavy weight of his haori and the rest of his Shinigami robes. If he looked Jushiro knew he would see a vague muted pinkish light, not the green energy that the 4th Division used. It was the remnants of Kagome's former life when she had been a miko. Normally when humans died their unique abilities vanished. But she had been something else. Mikos, like Quincy, were a rare breed of humans.

She was a healer that could rival Retsu. But where the 4th Captain's abilities were limited really to combat wounds Kagome had the capability of weaving her energy within the person and heal from the inside out. The first time Jushiro had realized the difference had been when his weakness had plagued him all those years ago in the Academy. He'd begun coughing back then too.

And like before when her hands pulled away from his chest, Jushiro found his strength greatly sapped.

* * *

**Character Change (Kagome)**

She yelped as without warning the 13th Captain more or less collapsed on top of her. Again.  **Ag _ain!_** What was it about her that the Shinigami thought she was his personal cushion for any collision with the ground?

He was only sixty or so pounds heavier than her, not quite enough to crush her. Besides there was no moving the 13th Captain until he awoke. And then he would be a sputtering out-of-his-league mess for lack of a better word. Forget the fact that he'd seen less clothing and more flesh before. When the 13th Captain was feeling frisky that is. Still it  _was_  Jushiro she was talking about. He had been brought up in a time when manners were paramount and, regardless of how Shunsui acted, women were to be respected.

Besides it was partially her fault.

She had done as she had all those years ago at the Academy. Reacted on instinct at his coughing fit. Though if this coughing fit was anything to go by since she'd last been in Soul Society just over a century ago he'd been getting progressively worse. Not weak. Kagome would never call the white haired Shinigami weak. Jushiro clung stubbornly to life, an active life, where so many others would have simply curled into a ball somewhere and waited for death.

Sighing Kagome Higurashi ran her fingers through white hair. Yeah, he was asleep. The strain of his fit and then having her heal him, her own energy wrapping around his and literally through his frame to repair the damage, had quite literally tired the man out. Another woman would have been embarrassed, she supposed, though it was hard to be embarrassed by loved ones.

So what if in the fall his head had come to rest upon her breasts?

And Jushiro wondered why the rumors from the Academy had started. Really he was  ** _so_**  naive sometimes.

* * *

Pairing: Jushiro Ukitake x Kagome Higurashi

 

**Author's Note:**

> A treat written by my Fanfiction co-writer, [StepIntoTheLight](https://www.fanfiction.net/~stepintothelight)


End file.
